Thank God I'm a contract employee and not GS like 90% of my office... They went home today as soon as their furlough letters arrived... Which leaves me to carry their weight.. let's hope nothing happens... The three/thirty rule is going to suck going in solo.. :-) , but at least there will be affordable health care if I get blown up............... Riiiiiiight?

OY Vey. I priced my new and improved health care option yesterday and here's the square deal. If I drop coverage for my 2 early twenties kids and double my deductible to $10k my premium for my wife and I in our early 50s is $1000 mth. That means we could be $20,000+ out of pocket with premiums and deductibles before I get catastrophic relief if we have a common loss. Exactly 3 times what I would have paid just last year. Oh yeah, you think you'll be able to keep your old plan.... my old plans rates skyrocketed to phase out clients like us who might want to keep our plan. Just call the whole debacle a consumer tax shell game and get over it.

For Gods sake there's a new "affordable" option called an unlimited deductible that they actually charge a premium for. UH....unlimited deductible....who could that actually help except the company.

The poor with less than $12k annual?? They actually get no coverage but instead they go straight to their states medicaid indigent care(which is what was already in-place). If you've seen how that works just know that the reality sucks.

The icing is a trillion more dollars in national debt for my grand kids. Frikken genius. All praise the savior in the white house who never even chaired a committee before being elected, and screw the greedy self serving idiots running our country on both sides of the isle.

I still hope I wake up and the last 12yrs are just a horrible nightmare of botched foreign policy, mortgage irresponsibility and unregulated bailouts. Sorry. Its a sore spot. Mike

Number one reason for filing personal backruptcy: medical costs. Both political parties are 'owned' by pharma, device makers and insurance companies (amongst others). So don't expect and rational fixes.

rational fix: term limits.... no more income than mean average of area represented+10% and expenses... no bills introduced that contain anything not related to title of bill... no lobbyist... if it's good for the people, it's good for the legislators..

you know, common sense and fairness...

meanwhile, the farce continues-

wanna read something of interest? read up on the sale of closed post offices and how one and only one broker/agency has responsibility of selling... read up on who owns that real estate company, and stands to make from 600M to 1.3B from this... <- this kind of crap is what those folks are all about... there is zero interest outside of their own gain for any constituents.

I will have to find out if the bow of a 342 can handle the weight of a 50 Cal machine gun structurally speaking. The people of this country need to rise up. There are so many people that have NO clue what is happening. Ask any young kid to name a Supreme Court Justice. I know one, his name is John Obama Roberts!.

John Roberts was a Bush appointee. He also said the police can take your DNA without a conviction and keep it (which in reality means not just yours, but anyone related to you too). He also opened the flood gates to the money in politics with "Citizens United". All this and more c/o a fine 'conservative'. lol

Most of what I normally use at NOAA is still up with the header saying:

"Due to the Federal Government shutdown, NOAA.gov and most associated web
sites are unavailable. However, because the information this site
provides is necessary to protect life and property, it will be updated
and maintained during the Federal Government shutdown".

Now what was the water temp and airspeed under my favorite palm tree??? hmm nice today. At least congress/senate can't screw up a good weather day.....yet. It all seems so completely out of my control that when I get wracked by the whole convoluted mess I turn to the sea and the Captain for direction.....Captain Morgan that is...Remedy to situation: apply internal salve liberally when hopelessly out numbered by morons in charge.

......and WHY do they rope off statues, memorials and close parks (closing buildings I get, but parks?) when the government isn't "open"??? Photo opps or to deter the assembly of a disatified electorate I suppose. I say a good public humiliation and whipping with a cane (like they do in Indonesia) of self serving officials might create a stir and some over due determination. But we're above that now..... and we get what we get.

Anyone can flip BD. I saw one of the worst political stunts yesterday. They barricaded the WW2 memorial and would not let the Vets in that flew on the Mercy flight. UFB. Said the Govt was closed. How are you going to barricade OPEN memorials??? Then they tried to barricade the Lincoln memorial. Same thing. Those memorials are open to the public 24/7. Found out the orders came from the WH. Go figure. Shame shame.

As far as I am concerned Obama is a bold face liar. He said if you were happy with your plan you can keep it. Bull! I pay for my own coverage. I received a letter today from Aenta informing me that I cannot keep my plan and I will have to buy a new ACA plan. I checked the exchange. I am 40 and my wife is 36 and we have a 9 year old daughter. Our rate would go from $600.00 per month to almost $1,000.00. The coverage isn't even any good. It is a 60/40 plan with a $5,000.00 deductible no dental, and no prescription. That would be another $200.00. WTF! I had everything in one policy 80/20 with a $2,500.00 deductible for just below $600.00 a month. I am so ****.

My wife and I run our business through a corporation, with no employees. Literally a "Mom & Pop." We heretofore qualified as a "group" with Anthem Blue Cross. We learned yesterday that Obamacare makes husband-wife "groups" illegal, our coverage will be dropped. So much for "if you like your current health plan, you can keep it"

News of this has not broken with the media yet, but it will and there are going to be a lot of unhappy Moms and Pops. Meanwhile big corporations get a one year delay on the mandate? This just ain't right. I have a lot of Democrat friends here in Cali of course (I'm independent,) and even the staunchest liberal Obama fans are getting disillusioned over what is looking more and more like a total cluster.

B_D. Where would I go? Costa Rica? Roatan, Honduras? Panama? Belize? Chile? Yes, even the Democrats are realizing they were lied too. Harry Reid wont even pass a spending bill to save dying kids? Come on Man!

I joined the corps out of high school, and pulled eight years... I was a combat veteran by the time I was 22 years old (somalia, haiti).. I got out during Clinton's tenure, and due to alterations on retirement (max for me would have been 35%@20), which was later repealed. I owned and operated a small retail and wholesale chain of cigar and wine shops for six years, then went back to service as a contractor in '02... I was paid handsomely due to my experiences whilst a marine. I've been to all the nasty spots in the eleven (working my twelfth year now) years with the company...

I've done nasty crap, and supported nasty crap... It was because it was better that somebody due it so somebody else wouldn't have to.. I was married last year and she had my first child in Feb.. I interact with idealistic young servicemen every day, their senior leaders, and I just want to slap them into the reality I know to be factual, now... I look at my seven month old little girl and I fear for her, and know her future wont be as secure as mine was, and her opportunities limited.. I think back to mogadishu and recall thinking the first time we went through the seaport into no mans land, and on into the city- we were the first foreigners in there since the Blackhawk down four months previous (and twenty years ago today)... My fanny was puckered.. I was armed to the teeth.. I was the lead vehicle driver.. once in the city, I lost all fear as I looked at that little tourist destination that had been totally ruined by the actions of greedy men and thought "this isn't THAT much different than hometown USA, anywhere USA"... Those thoughts go through my head today more than ever, but not because it surprises me, but because I didn't think I would live to see it.. I now think I will.. I know my innocent little girl will.. I fought and fought nasty to keep what I thought was my countries liberty intact, so folks raising kids, which is something I never expected, could live in relative comfort, and security...

I now see the enemy wasn't on all those distant grounds, but elected brothers and sisters.. and there you have it.. we were aiming and firing at who we were told were enemies by who turns out to be the true enemy of what we thought we were fighting for.. twisted, no?

Integrity is gone long gone, and these guys force things on us we almost to a man refuse... What is the definition of tyranny again?

I feel ashamed more now than ever of the things I've done in my life and question the motivation up the chain of command to the very top.. I wonder how long that farce has actually been going on, or if we're just becoming keen to it..

This is not the country I bled and drew blood for. It isn't, and that makes me sad beyond anything I could express if you were sitting across from me right now, much less anything I can type.

my marina is on a National Park. I got a letter saying that the park is closed due to the shut down. I may take my boat out, but since the park is closed, I may not bring it back. hahahaha what kind of sense does that make?

and who's gonna enforce that? rangers that are home due to the same shut down? hahaha